Skip to content Skip to left sidebar Skip to footer

Garden Route Environmental Forum

21 October 2024 Media Release: Kaaimans Gorge, a lost treasure

Media Release: Kaaimans Gorge, a lost treasure

For immediate release
21 October 2024

“Paying a heavy price for development and road infrastructure, the iconic Kaaimans Gorge between Wilderness and George has lost much of its environmental and historical significance,” says Cobus Meiring of the Garden Route Environmental Forum (GREF). The iconic gorge symbolises everything the Garden  Route represents but is subjected to the full impact of one of South Africa’s busiest highways.

Kaaimans Gorge is a vital conservation corridor linking the Indian Ocean with the Outeniqua mountains and is a marine and terrestrial biodiversity treasure chest. Periodic land- slides, the formation of erosion gullies, unprecedented growth of invasive alien plants and the damming of water flow upstream of Kaaimans Gorge collectively pushed the Kaaimans balance of nature and sense of place to a point of no return.

In addition to the above, an indigenous creeper has in less than a decade covered much of the northern slope of the Kaaimans indigenous forest. This development led to the collapse of the forest under the weight of the creeper and no doubt will cause further land-slides as dead  biomass and water-logged soils with no plant cover to keep it in check, will at some point give way to gravity.

More often than not, the environment has to give way to development and the growing needs of resource-hungry populations. If the Garden Route is to retain any of its allure as an international point of interest, those living in it should make special efforts to conserve what remains of one of the most special natural spaces on the African continent.

Garden Route river systems are essential conservation corridors which are essential to the survival of biodiversity and land owners in their catchments can contribute to their optimal functionality by clearing their land of invasive alien plants.

The Garden Route Environmental Forum (GREF) is a public platform for environmental management agencies and a climate change think- tank. (grefscli.org.za)

Photo: Kaaimans gorge

26 September 2024 Media Release: Regenerating degraded land may prove a lifeline to Garden Route biodiversity

Media Release: Regenerating degraded land may prove a lifeline to Garden Route biodiversity

26 September 2024 

“Well over a million hectares of agricultural land in the Southern Cape interior, Karoo and neighbouring Eastern Cape has over time degraded to a point where it can no longer be regarded as suitable for sustainable farming,” says Cobus Meiring of the Garden Route Environmental Forum (GREF).

There are multiple reasons for land to degrade to a point where it can no longer sustain biodiversity. The most significant of factors instigating land degradation generally include a combination of climate change, over grazing, irresponsible land management practices, over-extraction of water resources and deforestation.

Habitat loss as a result of new development and rapid urbanization is fast causing the Garden Route to lose biodiversity posing a challenge to those tasked with environmental management and sustainability. Efforts to conserve, grow and protect intact biodiversity is vital for the future well- being of the Garden Route and the quality of life of all dependent on it.

Land restoration and rehabilitation is a complex process which takes time and absorb substantial resources before the full benefit thereof take effect, but the restoration of thousands of hectares of degraded agricultural land holds the key to mitigate biodiversity and habitat loss elsewhere. At the same time eco-system restoration has the potential to earn carbon credit benefits and in parts of Kannaland there are already such efforts underway.

The creation of conservation corridors allowing for the free movement and survival of terrestrial species are increasingly understood and supported by landowners outside the urban edge, whilst conservancies and green belts within the urban edge goes a long way towards that objective.

The creation and maintenance of a healthy environment is a shared responsibility and GREF would like to urge land owners and land managers to contribute towards re-establishing natural habitats and the conservation of threatened eco-systems in the Garden Route.

Feature image caption: Degraded land in the Southern Cape interior, Karoo and bordering Eastern Cape can be restored to sustain biodiversity.

ENDS